No land ownership certificate in village of 109 households

Published On: November 20, 2018 07:26 AM NPT By: Yogesh Rawal

The paddies in Kusumghat village in Tikapur pictured last week. | Photo: Yogesh Rawal/Republica

TIKAPUR, Nov 20: Kusumghat village of Bhajani Municipality-3, Tikapur, was formed in 1967 by clearing a massive forest area. The village was formed by people living across the Mohana River after they faced constant troubles from Indian robbers and dacoits. The village lies near the no man’s land.

At present, 109 households live in Kusumghat and they occupy around 500 bigha of land. The village has a school, a small market, a health center, and roads are being developed. But interestingly, none of the residents has land ownership certificate.

In lack of certificates, locals have been facing lots of problems. The residents have not been able to divide the land they own among their children. Also, they are unable to use the land as collateral for getting loans.

Janga Bahadur Saud was one of the first settlers. Currently, his fourth generation has been tilling the land. His grandson, Harka Saud, recently vented frustrations over not having proper ownership of the land.

“Residents of many newer settlements have already received land ownership certificates from the government. But none of the people here have certificates,” he said.

Saud meanwhile also blamed ‘greed’ among the locals for their plight. According to him, officials from the Land Survey Department had once approached them and offered 1 bigha per household, but most of the locals who were tilling more than 1 bigha protested demanding that they should be given certificates for all the land they were using.

“The team then left the village without taking measurements and never returned. If we had agreed to the proposal, everyone would have land ownership certificates,” Saud bemoaned.

All the villagers are listed in the voter list. They vote religiously in every election. Although political leaders win elections with their vote, none of them has worked to resolve their problem.

Ward chairman Bikram Chaudhary meanwhile said a land survey team is in the process of taking land measurements in Kusumghat very soon. For now, locals are still left with no choice but to wait.